More than 100 vocalists competed in this year’s Blues Alley Ella Fitzgerald Vocal Competition. What separated Clara Campbell, the winner, from the other applicants, according to vocalist/judge Nicole Zuraitis, “was her unique voice. She didn’t sound like someone else. And, the arrangements were exciting and interesting. She didn’t play it safe, and I think that’s the most important part of being a jazz singer today — taking risks.”
The 25-year-old old Campbell grew up in Bountiful, Utah, a Salt Lake City suburb, playing piano and flute. In high school, she played piano in the big band and started singing with the big band and a combo. Her father, trumpeter Todd Campbell, is the Woods Cross High School Band Director. “My family comes from a big jazz background,” she said. “My dad was always putting on records, so I was hearing jazz a lot. Early on, it was Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Later, Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan.”
When Campbell attended the Horne School of Music at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, “I finally took voice lessons.” Her voice teacher was vocalist Jennifer Madsen, a Snow College Adjunct Professor. “She was a big mentor to me,” Campbell said. “She was amazing — the most caring and selfless and giving musician.”
Madsen described Campbell as “one of the most intelligent and intuitive vocalists I’ve had the honor of mentoring. I offer a 100-Song Challenge to my students: memorize 100 songs, identify the composers and lyricists, understand the key in which they would be sung, and be able to perform them from memory. Clara not only completed the challenge, but she also exceeded every expectation by playing all 100 songs from memory while accompanying herself on the piano.”
Other inspirations to Campbell at Snow were bassist Philip Kuehn, who was the Director of Jazz Studies, and drummer Carl Allen. Kuehn said Campbell “is easily among the top five most talented and hardworking students I have ever taught. She has a musical maturity and versatility that goes beyond her years.” Allen ran summer camps at the college, and Campbell met him while she was still in high school. Campbell graduated from Snow with a Bachelor of Music degree, with an emphasis on Commercial Music.
The theme of this year’s Blues Alley Competition was “Ella Sings Arlen”, with each contestant selecting three Arlen tunes. Campbell’s choices were: “That Old Black Magic”, “I’ve Got the World on a String”, and “Stormy Weather”. She “arranged them in my own way, kind of putting my own twist on them.”
Campbell is currently in the Air Force as vocalist for the Airmen of Note, a band created in 1950 to continue the tradition of Major Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force dance band. The AON has 17 active-duty instrumentalists and one vocalist. The group is headquartered at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, DC.
“They announce auditions to the musician world,” Campbell said. “I auditioned in 2022. At first, I didn’t think it was for me, but I thought ‘I’m just going to give it a try, and we’ll see.’ I sent in my preliminary tapes, and then I was invited to the live audition in Washington, DC. Then, a few days later I got the phone call that I was the one; it was really surreal.
“Every year, the Airmen of Note invite luminaries in the jazz scene, and we do a separate concert with each of them. We play their music and feature them and get to collaborate with them, record a few things and make a compilation record. This year we had (vocalist) Catherine Russell on March 6 and (guitarist) Pasquale Grasso on April 3.”
When the Ella Fitzgerald winner was announced, Campbell was on tour with the Airmen of Note, so she couldn’t be in DC to accept the award. However, “I have a gig at Blues Alley on July 21, and that will kind of celebrate the win. The other candidates were really incredible, so i feel very honored.”
The second-place winner was Aanya Sengupta of New Delhi, India; and the three third place winners were: Jameson Falconer of St. Louis, Angelina Kolobukhova of Minsk, Belarus , and Ale Nunez of Toronto. The first-place winner receives $2,500; second place, $1,000; and each third-place winner gets $500.
PHOTO BY BILL GUILLIAM